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Pitkänen, M., On the Mechanism of the Energy Transfer in Photosynthesis

Essay

On the Mechanism of the Energy Transfer in Photosynthesis
Matti Pitkänen 1

Abstract

The basic mystery of photosynthesis is extreme energy efficiency. Up to 95% of the photon’s energy
is transmitted in a medium that would seem to be as inhospitable as possible for energy transmission
with almost no dissipation. The use of very low temperatures, the shooting of monochromatic photons
into a lattice, and superconductivity are out of the question. The incoming photons also have a
wavelength distribution, which does not facilitate the energy transfer either. The recent experimental
study of the LH2 antenna system has led to a view about how the photon energy is transferred to the
reaction center where photosynthesis takes place. It is believed that the disorganization of the proteins
is proposed to explain this. The proposed interpretation of the findings is as follows. A photon enters
and excites the electron of the LH2 protein. When the electron is de-excited, one or more photons are
generated which in turn excite the electrons of the next LH2 proteins. Finally, the generated photons
excite the electrons of the reaction center and these electrons are used in the photosynthetic process
to produce sugar molecules. I find it difficult to imagine how the irregular positions of proteins could
make possible the low dissipation, as proposed. The TGD based proposal for the mechanism involves
two key ideas. The required long range quantum coherence is made possible by the proposal that dark
matter corresponds to the phases of ordinary matter characterized by effective Planck constant. The
crystal structure making possible low dissipation would be icosa-tetrahedral hyperbolic honeycomb
associated with a magnetic body of the system, which is central also in the dark realization of the
genetic code in the TGD framework. Low dissipation for electrons would be possible since dark
electron-hole pairs would be transferred along the magnetic body. The gravitational magnetic body
of Earth could also play a central role.

1 Introduction
I learned about very interesting results related to photosynthesis. A popular article on the BigThink page
(https://rb.gy/phb4c) tells about an article published in the journal PNAS [2] (rb.gy/9zppa).

The basic mystery of photosynthesis is extreme energy efficiency. Up to 95% of the photon’s energy is
transmitted in a medium that would seem to be as inhospitable as possible for energy transmission with
almost no dissipation. The use of very low temperatures, the shooting of monochromatic photons into
a lattice, and superconductivity are out of the question. The incoming photons also have a wavelength
distribution, which does not facilitate the energy transfer either.

Consider first a summary of the basic findings and conclusions.

1. Chlorophyll is the basic structure involved with photosynthesis. Its basic function is to gather solar
energy and transfer it to the reaction center where the energy is stored to various biomolecules.
There are 2 wavelength bands, corresponding to 430 nm in blue and 662 nm in red, where the
absorption is especially strong. The so-called LH2 proteins act as antennas absorbing photons. In
the reaction center LH1 proteins perform photosynthesis by building biomolecules to which the solar
energy is stored.

2. It has been observed that the lower limit of the size of the so-called light-absorbing LH2 antenna
proteins is 2.5 nm. It is also the minimum distance between LH2 proteins. The proposal is that the
LH2 antenna network could somehow make the transfer of energy almost without dissipation.

1Correspondence: Matti Pitkänen http://tgdtheory.com/. Address: Rinnekatu 2-4 A8, 03620, Karkkila, Finland. Email:
matpitka6@gamail.com.

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https://rb.gy/phb4c
rb.gy/9zppa
http://tgdtheory.com/
mailto:matpitka6@gmail.com


DNA Decipher Journal | December 2023 | Volume 13 | Issue 2 | pp. 144-150 145
Pitkänen, M., On the Mechanism of the Energy Transfer in Photosynthesis

It is believed that the disorganization of the proteins might explain this. However, in the popular
article there was no intuitive argument as to why this is so. The claim is made on the basis of
computational models and empirical facts gained by studying the transfer process. I find it difficult
to imagine how the irregular positions of proteins could promote the process.

3. The proposed interpretation of the findings is as follows. A photon enters and excites the electron of
the LH2 protein. When the electron is de-excited, one or more photons are generated which in turn
excite the electrons of the next LH2 proteins. Finally, the generated photons excite the electrons
of the reaction center and these electrons are used in the photosynthetic process to produce sugar
molecules.

1.1 TGD view of the energy transfer
The findings seem to resonate with two key views of the TGD inspired quantum biology.

1. Photosynthesis involves at least a temporary storage of solar energy to quantum gravitational energy
batteries [10, 9].

2. There is dark variant of the genetic code and realization of dark DNA double strand base on the
icosahedral tessellation [11] of the hyperbolic 3-space H3, which is realized both as a mass shell in
M4 ⊂ M8 and light-cone proper time=constant 3-surface in M4 ⊂ M4 × CP2.
Icosa-tetrahedral and possible other hyperbolic tessellations would be associated, not with the bi-
ological body, but with the magnetic body (MB) of the biosystem carrying dark matter identified
as phases of the ordinary matter with effective Planck constant heff = nh0. The location of dark
matter at the field body would explain why dark matter has not been found in various searches.

What are the TGD answers to the basic questions waiting for an answer?

1. Why would the dissipation be so low? Quantum coherence in a scale of at least the order of tens of
nanometers could guarantee this. Dark matter as phases with a large value of heff indeed implies
a long quantum coherence scale. Also a regular crystal structure is a natural prerequisite for a low
dissipation. The dissipation is minimized if the energy, or possibly the electrons, are transferred
through the hyperbolic tessellation of the MB carrying dark matter.

2. The minimum distance between LH2 proteins is about 2.5-4 nanometers, which corresponds to the
DNA codon size scale. In the TGD based model for genetic code, the dark realization of the genetic
code and the DNA double helix are connected to an icosa-tetrahedral honeycomb in hyperbolic
3-space H3 assigned with the MB [11]. Could the crystalline structure be realized by using the
same icosa-tetrahedral tessellation as associated with the dark DNA and dark genome controlling
the ordinary genome.
If the transfer of energy to the reaction center occur at the MB as a transfer of dark electrons,
the dissipation could be very small since there would be no direct interaction of the dark electrons
with the ordinary matter if the interaction vertices can involve only particles with the same value
of heff , as seems natural.

2 The TGD based model
Consider now the TGD proposal in more detail.

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DNA Decipher Journal | December 2023 | Volume 13 | Issue 2 | pp. 144-150 146
Pitkänen, M., On the Mechanism of the Energy Transfer in Photosynthesis

2.1 Quantitative data
Consider next the quantitative data.

1. The distance between LH2 proteins is in the range 2.5-3.1 nm. This scale corresponds to the DNA
codon size scale and to the cell size of the fundamental region of the icosa-tetrahedral tessellation,
which has Platonic solids as cells [11]. There are 12 icosahedrons, 20 tetrahedrons and 30 octahe-
drons forming a region of size 10 nm, which corresponds to the p-adic length scale L(151) (associated
with a p-adic prime p ≃ 2k, k = 151) appearing as a characteristic length scale in bomatter. This
region corresponds to 10 DNA codons for which the total twist along the DNA strand is 6π that is
3 full turns.

2. The size of the structure involved with the photosynthesis would be naturally cell size scale? The
wavelength of the red light gives a length scale of order .5 µm and serves a natural lower bound.
Note that cell nucleus size is about 1 µm.

3. The time τ required for the energy transfer between adjacent antenna proteins varies from 5.7 to
14 ps. In time τ , the distance traveled by the light is L = 1.71 − 4.2 mm. Interestingly, for Earth
the gravitational Compton wavelength Λgr(E) = GME/β0(E) is for β0(E) = v0/c = 1 equal to
Λgr(E) = 4.5 mm. Gravitational Compton frequency is fgr(E) = 67 GHz and corresponds to a
time of about Tgr(E) = 15 ps, the upper limit for the estimated time.
fgr corresponds to a photon energy of Egr = .27 meV. The electronic metabolic energy quantum
in the case of the Earth would be related by a factor me/mp the protonic metabolic energy quan-
tum identifiable as standard metabolic energy currency. The model for the findings of Andrew
Adamatsky [4] suggests that sponges have a language based on membrane potential oscillations
with membrane potential variations of order mV. The TGD based model suggests the existence of
metabolic energy quantum of this order of magnitude [10]! meV is also the energy associated with
the miniature membrane potentials. Could τ be identifiable as the gravitational Compton time Tgr

at which the dark matter at the MB would oscillate?

2.2 How could the electrons be transferred to the reaction center as dark
electrons?

Could the process at the level of LH2 antenna proteins correspond to the propagation of the dark electron
and the hole associated with it? The dark electron would hop between the sites of the tessellation
perhaps by quantum tunneling, which in TGD Universe corresponds to a pair of ”big” (ordinary) state
function reductions (BSFRs) changing the arrow of time temporarily. The dark electron current would
be analogous to super current and the system ”hole + dark electron” would be analogous to a Cooper
pair.

1. The duration τ of a single step should correspond to the oscillation period τ ∼ Tgr. If so, the
oscillation would play the role of EEG resonance oscillation coordinating the transfer by induces
the pairs of BSFRs.

2. The first guess is that electrons are converted to dark electrons with a large value of the gravitational
Planck’s constant ~eff = ~gr = GMm/β0(M) [1] located at the gravitational MB of the Earth or
Sun. They would be transferred to the U-shaped monopole flux tubes and the reduction of the
binding energy of the electron would be equal to the energy of the incoming photon absorbed by it.
The reduction of the binding energy cannot be however purely gravitational. For electrons, the
maximal gravitational binding energy in the case of the Earth is about Egr(Earth, e) = .25 meV
whereas the incoming photon has energy E ≃ x × .5 eV, where x is in the range 4 to 6 in the
wavelength range considered. For the Sun the maximal binding energy Egr is reduced by the ratio

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DNA Decipher Journal | December 2023 | Volume 13 | Issue 2 | pp. 144-150 147
Pitkänen, M., On the Mechanism of the Energy Transfer in Photosynthesis

[M(Earth)/M(Sun)]× [R(Sun)/R(Earth) = .071. In the case of protons with Egr(Earth, p) = .5
eV this gives to Egr(Sun, p) = .14 eV, which happens to be roughly twice the energy assignable to
membrane potential. For electrons this gives Egr(Sun, e) = 1.8 µeV.
For the energy transfer in photosynthesis, the energy of the solar photon cannot therefore correspond
to the change of gravitational binding energy in the case of electrons. Rather, the energy must be
identified as the change of electromagnetic binding energy as an atom is effectively ionized when
an electron becomes a dark electron at the MB. This MB need not be gravitational and could also
correspond to a relatively small heff > h.

3. What comes to mind are dark unpaired valence electron states of atoms in which the heff of an
unpaired electron increases so that binding energy is scaled down by 1/h2

eff . The binding energy
spectrum of the dark electron states is obtained by scaling the ordinary binding energy spectrum
and these states are analogous Rydgerg states in that the radius of Bohr orbits is scaled up by
h2
eff . If the valence electron becomes gravitationally dark (heff = hgr), the atom effectively suffers

ionization to a state with vanishing energy and positive charge. Dark ions could correspond to this
kind of states.

4. How could the energy transfer to the reaction center take place? The simplest mechanism could
be the following. One can charge the solar energy batteries by transforming ordinary electrons to
dark electrons at the MB of the Sun. At the reaction center the dark electrons drop back and
transform to ordinary electrons and are available for the photosynthesis proper, storing the energy
to biomolecules.
The experimental findings could be consistent with the assumption that the pairs formed by a
dark electron and hole move to the reaction center, and the movement of the dark electron is
analogous to a conduction in a lattice by hopping. The lattice could correspond to the tetra-
icosahedral tessellation assignable also with DNA and genetic code. The time for one transition
would correspond to Tgr(Earth) ∼ 15ns. This supports the view that the MB of the Earth is
present.

5. Why would the dropping down to Earth take place in the reaction center? The holes have an
effective positive charge because the dark electrons have a large distance to the surface of Earth.
If the reaction center has a negative charge, it attracts the positively charged holes. The holes
move towards the reaction center and the dark electrons and gravitational monopole flux tubes and
dark electrons follow. The electrons transform to normal ones and holes disappear. The predicted
negative charge of the reaction center serves as a test for the proposal.

6. How this negatively charged region in the reaction center could be generated? Pollack effect [5, 3,
7, 6], discussed from the TGD point of view in [8], is caused by (say) IR radiation in the presence of
gel phase, and indeed generates negatively charged exclusion zones. The exclusion zones could be
due the transfer of protons of water molecules to dark protons at the flux tubes of the MB,which is
however not gravitational. Both cells and DNA represent examples of negatively charged objects.
Pollack effect is indeed a key element of the TGD inspired view of living matter. There it is natural
to assume that the exclusion zone is present also in the reaction center.

If the energies of dark electrons and holes are separately conserved, they can annihilate to the ordinary
electron in the reaction center. Can this be true?

1. Why would the energy of the dark electron be conserved in the hopping along the tessellation?
Single step would correspond to a motion under the magnetic Lorentz force, which conserves energy
since force is orthogonal to the velocity.

2. What about the dark electron-hole interaction? This interaction is present if the flux tube follows the
motion of the hole-dark electron pair. This pair would form a bound state analogous to the Cooper

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DNA Decipher Journal | December 2023 | Volume 13 | Issue 2 | pp. 144-150 148
Pitkänen, M., On the Mechanism of the Energy Transfer in Photosynthesis

pair and its energy would be conserved if its scattering would reduce to the magnetic scattering of
the dark electron. The situation would be very much like in the case of superconductivity.

3. If the hole corresponds to a transition of an unpaired valence electron to a large heff analog of a
Rydberg state with a very large size, the binding energy and energy of the state is very near to
zero. The ionization energy scale for valence electrons is measured in electron volts just like for the
photons from the Sun.
The energy scale for icosa-tetrahedral honeycomb scaling like ~2eff/(2meL

2), L the size of the
fundamental region, gives an estimate for the unit of energy quantization, which does not depend
on ~eff . The energy scale is 102 eV for L = L(151) = 10 nm. This scale is expected to be very
large as compared to the energy gap so that transitions are not possible. The situation would be
like in superconductivity and superfluidity.

4. What about energy conservation in the motion of the localized valence hole? Valence electron
hole can be replaced with the valence electron of a neighboring atom and this makes possible its
movement towards the negatively charged reaction center. The energy of the valence hole in the
center of mass system of the atom is not changed but the ionized atom or the molecule containing
it would experience the Coulomb force assumed to be associated with the reaction center and its
center of mass energy can change.
How is it possible that the attractive Coulomb field between the hole and the reaction center does
not affect the energy of the valence hole? The question is well-motivated The Coulomb energy
between the hole and the reaction center is expected to be much larger than the energy gap. For
instance, for distance of 1 µm the Coulomb energy between unit charges is of order 10−2 eV.
What prevents the valence hole from accelerating and getting more energetic? The U-shaped grav-
itational magnetic flux tube has a string tension and the lengthening of the flux tube could com-
pensate for the Coulomb force. The Coulomb energy would be transformed to elastic energy of the
flux tube. In the reaction center the flux tube would contract and the dark electron could fuse with
the hole having the same energy.

2.3 Is this picture consistent with the quantum gravitational storage of metabolic
energy?

Is this picture consistent with the earlier proposal for the metabolic energy storage, which is based on
the notion of gravitationally dark protons [10] and also predicts electronic metabolic energy currency of
about .25 meV for which there is some evidence [4]?

1. The motivation for the proposal is that the gravitational potential energy of a proton at the surface
of Earth is .5 eV: this happens to be the nominal value of metabolic energy quantum. Of course, since
the electromagnetic binding energies in molecular scale are measured using eV as units, this might
be a pure accident. The weaker optimistic interpretation is that this co-incidence makes possible
interaction between quantum gravitational and quantum electromagnetic degrees of freedom.
When the distance from the surface of Earth in the direction of the Sun, the gravitational forces of
Sun and Earth are identical. This condition gives an upper bound for the distance r(Earth) of the
particle from the Earth in the direction of Sun as r(Earth)/AU−r(Earth) =

√
M(Earth)/M(Sun)

giving r(Earth) ≃ 100R(Earth) to be compared to the distance of Moon about r(Moon) ≃
60R(Earth). The value of the gravitational potential difference as is 99% of the maximal one.
The proposal [10] is that the transformation of protons of water molecules to gravitationally dark
protons could serve as a mechanism for the storage of metabolic energy.
If the metabolic energy quantum is determined solely by the gravitation of Earth, this mechanism
does not work at large distances from the surface of Earth. The fact that Moon travellers have

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DNA Decipher Journal | December 2023 | Volume 13 | Issue 2 | pp. 144-150 149
Pitkänen, M., On the Mechanism of the Energy Transfer in Photosynthesis

survived does not favor a purely gravitational mechanism but the fact that molecular binding
energies are of the same order, might save the mechanism. A more imaginative option is that the
gravitational MB of the Moon traveller is still associated with Earth and makes it possible to store
metabolic energy to the gravitational MB of Earth.

2. Dark protons triplets could serve as a storage of metabolic energy in the case of ATP (high energy
phosphate bond) and maybe even in the case of biomolecules. This is supported by the appearance
of 3 protons as a kind of basic unit in ATP→ ADP metabolic machinery.

3. In the Pollack effect, IR radiation effectively ionizes water molecules and produces effective stoi-
chiometry H1.5O inside a negatively charged exclusion zone. The decrease of the electronic binding
energy per water molecule in the Pollack effect could be naturally given by the energy of the IR pho-
ton and would be rather small. If the Coulomb binding energy of the dark proton triplets with the
exclusion zone is equal the metabolic energy quantum E = .5 eV, the reduction of the gravitational
binding energy in the transfer of dark proton triplet to the gravitational MB would be given by E
and would lead to a zero energy state. Could one the build-up the energy carrying bio-molecules by
transferring dark proton triplet to the gravitational magnetic bodies of the biomolecules by using
the energy liberated by dark electrons as they drop down and transform to ordinary electrons in
the reaction center?

Received September 23, 2023; Accepted December 9, 2023

References
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https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310036.

[2] Harris D Wang D, Fiebig OC and Schlau-Cohen GS. Elucidating interprotein energy transfer dynam-
ics within the antenna network from purple bacteria. PNAS, 120((28)e2220477120), 2023. Available
at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.222047712. .

[3] The Fourth Phase of Water: Dr. Gerald Pollack at TEDxGuelphU, 2014. Available at: https:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-T7tCMUDXU.

[4] Adamatsky A. Language of fungi derived from electrical spiking activity, 2022. Available at: https:
//arxiv.org/pdf/2112.09907.pdf.

[5] Pollack G. Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life. Ebner and Sons, 2000. Available at: https:
//www.cellsandgels.com/.

[6] Zhao Q Pollack GH, Figueroa X. Molecules, water, and radiant energy: new clues for the origin of
life. Int J Mol Sci, 10:1419–1429, 2009. Available at: https://tinyurl.com/ntkfhlc.

[7] Pollack GH Zheng J-M. Long-range forces extending from polymer-gel surfaces. Phys Rev E,
68:031408–, 2003. Available at: https://tinyurl.com/ntkfhlc.

[8] Pitkänen M. Pollack’s Findings about Fourth phase of Water : TGD View. Available at: https:
/tgdtheory.fi/public_html/articles/PollackYoutube.pdf., 2014.

[9] Pitkänen M. Comparison of Orch-OR hypothesis with the TGD point of view. https://tgdtheory.
fi/public_html/articles/penrose.pdf., 2022.

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https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310036
h
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-T7tCMUDXU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-T7tCMUDXU
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https://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.09907.pdf
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https://tgdtheory.fi/public_html/articles/penrose.pdf
https://tgdtheory.fi/public_html/articles/penrose.pdf


DNA Decipher Journal | December 2023 | Volume 13 | Issue 2 | pp. 144-150 150
Pitkänen, M., On the Mechanism of the Energy Transfer in Photosynthesis

[10] Pitkänen M. How animals without brain can behave as if they had brain. https://tgdtheory.fi/
public_html/articles/precns.pdf., 2022.

[11] Pitkänen M. About tessellations in hyperbolic 3-space and their relation to the genetic code .
https://tgdtheory.fi/public_html/articles/tessellationH3.pdf., 2023.

ISSN: 2159-046X DNA Decipher Journal www.www.dnadecipher.com
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https://tgdtheory.fi/public_html/articles/precns.pdf
https://tgdtheory.fi/public_html/articles/precns.pdf
https://tgdtheory.fi/public_html/articles/tessellationH3.pdf

	Introduction
	TGD view of the energy transfer

	The TGD based model
	Quantitative data
	How could the electrons be transferred to the reaction center as dark electrons?
	Is this picture consistent with the quantum gravitational storage of metabolic energy?


